Mugabe hits out at Bush over human rights
The Zimbabwean president compared the Guantanamo Bay detention centre to a concentration camp
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When the first 200,000 Zimbabwe dollar banknote was released earlier this summer, it was a stark reflection of how far the economy of this southern African nation has fallen. |  |
Thursday, 27, Sep 2007 08:11
Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe has called US president George Bush a hypocrite for lecturing countries about human rights.
In his address to the United Nations general assembly, the 83-year-old president said the US had no right to criticise him as it was responsible for the deaths of innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the operation of the Guantanamo Bay detention centre.
The African head of state said: "His hands drip with innocent blood of many nationalities. He kills in Iraq. He kills in Afghanistan. And this is supposed to be our master on human rights?"
Mr Mugabe termed a speech in which the US president called his rule "tyrannical" as an example of "rank hypocrisy". He likened the Guantanamo Bay centre to a concentration camp and said that international law was neither respected nor applied there.
"America is primarily responsible for rewriting core tenets of the universal declaration of human rights," he said. "We seem all guilty for 9/11."
The Zimbabwean leader, whose country is facing the threat of hyperinflation, also warned world leaders against interfering with the way he manages the nation.
Mr Mugabe said: "Mr Bush and Mr Brown have no role to play in our national affairs. They are outsiders and should therefore keep out."
Earlier this month, prime minister Gordon Brown said he would boycott a scheduled EU-Africa summit if Mr Mugabe was in attendance, in protest against the problems facing Zimbabwe's population.